Tips and Tricks:

General
Pregnancy
Baby Book
Creating Your Print & Email Baby Book
Health
Education
Journals
Calendar

General:

Make a list to take with you to the hospital of all the pictures and video you want to take at the hospital and during your labor. There is so much going on that you don't want to forget anything. You only have one chance to captures those moments.
If you are running in 600 x 800 resolution and would like to see more on each page, hit the F11 key to run your browser in full screen. Hit F11 again to return to the normal viewing size.

Pregnancy:

Pregnancy Photos: Take a sideways photo of yourself on the same day every month of your pregnancy. Attach them into Growing Tales and you will always have a record of what you looked like during pregnancy.
Put your ultra-sound pictures into Growing Tales pregnancy.
Record digital video at your baby showers and include it in Pregnancy Sounds & Videos.
Don’t forget to record video of yourself during your pregnancy. Maybe a message for your baby each month from Mom & Dad and put it in Growing Tales. Your child will love to view this when they get older.
Take video and photos of the nursery as it is being setup; before and after photos are always fun to record.
Pregnancy Journal – Create a daily journal of your pregnancy using Growing Tales Journal. It is a good idea to name your pregnancy journal something other than just "Pregnancy". You might want to call it First Pregnancy or Pregnancy 1. That way if you have another baby, you can set up Second Pregnancy or Pregnancy 2.
Pregnancy Journal – make journal entries about what you are feeling, whether you have had morning sickness, anything you can think of related to your pregnancy. It is great to look back on these things and your children will love it as they grow older.
Pregnancy Milestones – There are already many pre-populated milestone categories in Growing Tales. Make sure you look through them so you can capture as much information as possible about your pregnancy. You can use what’s there or you can make up your own. Here are some examples of things you can track:
1. Track your ob/gyn visits – dates of the visit and how everything went
2. When you first heard the heartbeat
3. When you started wearing maternity clothes
4. When you told everyone you were pregnant
5. When you felt the baby kick for the first time
6. When you had your first ultrasound and what you saw and heard
7. Baby’s first hiccups
8. When you took your hospital tour
9. False alarms on labor!
10. Everything about the beginnings of your labor. Dilation, effacement and contractions.
Baby Showers – Use baby showers to track whether or not you have written someone a thank you note for a gift.
Track gifts you received that were not associated with a particular baby shower by setting up a "GENERAL" baby shower. For example, pick a date, then in the baby shower details, use "GENERAL" where you would enter "given by".
After your baby is born, remember to go back to Pregnancy Details and associate your new child with the pregnancy.
Baby Names – Use the comment field in Baby names to rank or order your current preference of names. Print it out with the "Print & email" feature of Growing Tales and put it on the refrigerator so you can continue to see which ones you like the best.

Baby Book:

Take a picture of your baby and each visitor in the hospital and your first week or two at home. You can attach them to Visitors in Growing Tales.
Use the visitors page to track thank you notes for gifts given in the hospital and at home. You can also track who brought food to the house or people that helped you out in the first few weeks home.
Be sure to take a picture of your new baby in their "Going home outfit" with mom & dad, or just the baby. This is the perfect picture to attach to "Going Home" in Growing Tales.
Baby Book Photos: Take a photo of your child on his/her birthday, then on the same day each month for the first year. Try to get a close-up of your child’s face. You can attach each photo in Growing Tales, but it also makes for a great set of pictures to hang somewhere in your house. You will see an amazing change over that first year!
Recording sound – most personal computers come with a microphone and software to record sounds. Record baby’s first words, funny sounds that they make and anything else you really want to remember. Attach them in Growing Tales Sounds & Videos.
Once your child can talk in sentences. Have little interviews with your child that you record either on video or with a microphone and put them in Growing Tales.
As your child gets older, allow them to view their sounds & videos and photos on Growing Tales. They will love it!
Baby Milestones – Here are some examples of things you can record:
- My Firsts ideas:
  - First smile
  - First laugh
  - First sounds made
  - First time baby slept through the night
  - First time baby rolls over
  - First time baby sits upright without help
  - First words
  - First trip away from home
  - First time baby reaches for an object
  - First time baby claps
  - First time baby crawls
  - First time baby stands without help
  - First steps
  - First haircut
- Birthdays
  - Record all of your child’s birthdays in Milestones and a birthday picture
- Special Occasions for baby – record any special occasions for your baby, Examples would be a religious event or a family reunion.
- Month by Month information. For each month (1^st Month, 2^nd Month, etc.) record the following information:
  - Physical Changes – Put Physical changes in the brief description, then more detail in the comments section.
  - Eating and sleeping habits
  - Accomplishments for the month or things you have noticed that baby is doing.
  - Baby’s favorite toys, places to go
  - New places baby has been during the month.

Creating Your Print & Email Baby Book:

You can print your baby book using Growing Tales Print & Email. You can print a "Growing Tales" version which uses the graphic illustrations from the product, or you can print a black and white version.
The black and white version could be printed on paper you buy in the store with a theme on it, such as scrap-booking paper or 8 x 10 stationery.
The information that gets printed in the baby book is as follows:
- My Birth Day – This is the about baby information in the baby book section of Growing Tales.
- In the Hospital – from the in the hospital page in the baby book section of Growing Tales
- Visitors and Gifts – from the Visitors page in the baby book section of Growing Tales
- Baby Showers – In order for this information to show up in the baby book, you must associate the pregnancy due date recorded to a specific child on the Details page in the pregnancy section of Growing Tales.
- Going Home – from the Going Home page in the baby book section of Growing Tales.
- The World When I Was Born – from the About Baby page in the baby book section of Growing Tales
- Our Family Tree – from the Family Tree page in the family section of Growing Tales.
- Milestones – a month by month display of the milestones in the baby book.
- My Baby Teeth – a baby tooth chart from the Baby Teeth page in the health section of Growing Tales
You can always change pages and reprint them as you go. That is the wonderful part of creating your baby book digitally. If you make a mistake it is easy to correct.
There are also "Extra pages" for your baby book in Print & Email. These pages can be customized by you. You could print a blank page with "Birth Certificate" at the top to put your child’s birth certificate in the baby book.
There are also extra pages with lines at the top, lines at the bottom, and lines on the whole page.
You can also use other "Print and Email" pages and put them in your baby book, such as Journals, classmates, etc.

Health:

As soon as you schedule a health visit, record it in Growing Tales. When you think of a question you want to ask your health provider, record it in the questions section of health visits. If you need to reschedule your health visit, you can do so without losing your questions for the visit!
Print out your health questions before your doctor visit and take them with you. There is also a place on the health questions to record the height, weight and head circumference information. Bring it back home with you and record it in Growing Tales.
Reasons for Visit. Growing Tales pre-defines some Health Visit types for you. If you want to make the entries more specific, feel free to do so.
Make sure you know what immunizations your child received on his/her health visit so you can record them in Growing Tales.
Use Monitoring & Tracking to record any kind of information such as general health issues, issues for special needs children, or sleeping and eating habits. If your health provider asks you to track something for your child, Monitoring & Tracking is the place to do it.
For example, you can use Monitoring & Tracking to monitor a fever and medication.
Through Growing Tales "Print & Email" you can print the information you have tracked and take it to your pediatrician.
Baby Teeth – don’t forget to track when your child’s teeth come in and when they come out. This will be printed in the "print & email" Baby Book included in Growing Tales.
Health Milestones: Below are some suggestions for things to track in the Health Milestones area.
- First Eye Exam
- First Hearing Exam
- First Dental Exam
- Starting a child’s exercise program
- First time your child is given cereal
- First time your child is given solid food
- First time your child uses the potty

Education:

Scan in your child’s artwork and attach it in Education Photos or as a milestone.
On the Education Page, don’t forget to take a photo of your child, your child’s teacher, a picture of the school or classroom and a picture of his/her classmates for the school year.
Enter all of your child’s classmates with their address and home information. You can then create a Class Roster in Print & Email to email to the entire class.
If your child is in daycare and they do "teacher evaluations" for your child, record the information in "report cards" and/or "tests". You don’t have to wait until your child is in grade school.
Use Education Milestones to record information such as the first time your child counts to 10, shape recognition, or even sports events, such as the first time they hit a home run!
You can record effective methods of discipline for your child at various stages in Education milestones.
Video tape your child playing a sport, a musical instrument, or participating in a spelling bee and attach it to Sounds & Videos. You could also record your child singing the ABC song.

Journals

Write a letter to your baby from Mom and Dad. Print it through Growing Tales Print & Email and put it in your Growing Tales baby book.
Create a daily journal while you are pregnant and record your experiences.
Create a Nanny Journal or Daycare journal to record what happened during your child’s day.
Create a journal entry for each of your child’s birthdays. It could be a letter to your child or about the birthday party.

Calendar:

Put reminders on the calendar for buying things for the nursery. If you want to have your nursery set up 1 month before your baby is due, get your buying schedule on your calendar!
Turn Growing Tales reminders into real appointments by simply selecting the reminder and choosing "appointment".
Record all of your child’s extra-curricular activities on the calendar.



	Tips and Tricks: General Pregnancy Baby Book Creating Your Print & Email Baby Book Health Education Journals Calendar General: Make a list to take with you to the hospital of all the pictures and video you want to take at the hospital and during your labor. There is so much going on that you don't want to forget anything. You only have one chance to captures those moments. If you are running in 600 x 800 resolution and would like to see more on each page, hit the F11 key to run your browser in full screen. Hit F11 again to return to the normal viewing size. Pregnancy: Pregnancy Photos: Take a sideways photo of yourself on the same day every month of your pregnancy. Attach them into Growing Tales and you will always have a record of what you looked like during pregnancy. Put your ultra-sound pictures into Growing Tales pregnancy. Record digital video at your baby showers and include it in Pregnancy Sounds & Videos. Don’t forget to record video of yourself during your pregnancy. Maybe a message for your baby each month from Mom & Dad and put it in Growing Tales. Your child will love to view this when they get older. Take video and photos of the nursery as it is being setup; before and after photos are always fun to record. Pregnancy Journal – Create a daily journal of your pregnancy using Growing Tales Journal. It is a good idea to name your pregnancy journal something other than just "Pregnancy". You might want to call it First Pregnancy or Pregnancy 1. That way if you have another baby, you can set up Second Pregnancy or Pregnancy 2. Pregnancy Journal – make journal entries about what you are feeling, whether you have had morning sickness, anything you can think of related to your pregnancy. It is great to look back on these things and your children will love it as they grow older. Pregnancy Milestones – There are already many pre-populated milestone categories in Growing Tales. Make sure you look through them so you can capture as much information as possible about your pregnancy. You can use what’s there or you can make up your own. Here are some examples of things you can track: Track your ob/gyn visits – dates of the visit and how everything went When you first heard the heartbeat When you started wearing maternity clothes When you told everyone you were pregnant When you felt the baby kick for the first time When you had your first ultrasound and what you saw and heard Baby’s first hiccups When you took your hospital tour False alarms on labor! Everything about the beginnings of your labor. Dilation, effacement and contractions. Baby Showers – Use baby showers to track whether or not you have written someone a thank you note for a gift. Track gifts you received that were not associated with a particular baby shower by setting up a "GENERAL" baby shower. For example, pick a date, then in the baby shower details, use "GENERAL" where you would enter "given by". After your baby is born, remember to go back to Pregnancy Details and associate your new child with the pregnancy. Baby Names – Use the comment field in Baby names to rank or order your current preference of names. Print it out with the "Print & email" feature of Growing Tales and put it on the refrigerator so you can continue to see which ones you like the best. Baby Book: Take a picture of your baby and each visitor in the hospital and your first week or two at home. You can attach them to Visitors in Growing Tales. Use the visitors page to track thank you notes for gifts given in the hospital and at home. You can also track who brought food to the house or people that helped you out in the first few weeks home. Be sure to take a picture of your new baby in their "Going home outfit" with mom & dad, or just the baby. This is the perfect picture to attach to "Going Home" in Growing Tales. Baby Book Photos: Take a photo of your child on his/her birthday, then on the same day each month for the first year. Try to get a close-up of your child’s face. You can attach each photo in Growing Tales, but it also makes for a great set of pictures to hang somewhere in your house. You will see an amazing change over that first year! Recording sound – most personal computers come with a microphone and software to record sounds. Record baby’s first words, funny sounds that they make and anything else you really want to remember. Attach them in Growing Tales Sounds & Videos. Once your child can talk in sentences. Have little interviews with your child that you record either on video or with a microphone and put them in Growing Tales. As your child gets older, allow them to view their sounds & videos and photos on Growing Tales. They will love it! Baby Milestones – Here are some examples of things you can record: My Firsts ideas: First smile First laugh First sounds made First time baby slept through the night First time baby rolls over First time baby sits upright without help First words First trip away from home First time baby reaches for an object First time baby claps First time baby crawls First time baby stands without help First steps First haircut Birthdays Record all of your child’s birthdays in Milestones and a birthday picture Special Occasions for baby – record any special occasions for your baby, Examples would be a religious event or a family reunion. Month by Month information. For each month (1^st Month, 2^nd Month, etc.) record the following information: Physical Changes – Put Physical changes in the brief description, then more detail in the comments section. Eating and sleeping habits Accomplishments for the month or things you have noticed that baby is doing. Baby’s favorite toys, places to go New places baby has been during the month. Creating Your Print & Email Baby Book: You can print your baby book using Growing Tales Print & Email. You can print a "Growing Tales" version which uses the graphic illustrations from the product, or you can print a black and white version. The black and white version could be printed on paper you buy in the store with a theme on it, such as scrap-booking paper or 8 x 10 stationery. The information that gets printed in the baby book is as follows: My Birth Day – This is the about baby information in the baby book section of Growing Tales. In the Hospital – from the in the hospital page in the baby book section of Growing Tales Visitors and Gifts – from the Visitors page in the baby book section of Growing Tales Baby Showers – In order for this information to show up in the baby book, you must associate the pregnancy due date recorded to a specific child on the Details page in the pregnancy section of Growing Tales. Going Home – from the Going Home page in the baby book section of Growing Tales. The World When I Was Born – from the About Baby page in the baby book section of Growing Tales Our Family Tree – from the Family Tree page in the family section of Growing Tales. Milestones – a month by month display of the milestones in the baby book. My Baby Teeth – a baby tooth chart from the Baby Teeth page in the health section of Growing Tales You can always change pages and reprint them as you go. That is the wonderful part of creating your baby book digitally. If you make a mistake it is easy to correct. There are also "Extra pages" for your baby book in Print & Email. These pages can be customized by you. You could print a blank page with "Birth Certificate" at the top to put your child’s birth certificate in the baby book. There are also extra pages with lines at the top, lines at the bottom, and lines on the whole page. You can also use other "Print and Email" pages and put them in your baby book, such as Journals, classmates, etc. Health: As soon as you schedule a health visit, record it in Growing Tales. When you think of a question you want to ask your health provider, record it in the questions section of health visits. If you need to reschedule your health visit, you can do so without losing your questions for the visit! Print out your health questions before your doctor visit and take them with you. There is also a place on the health questions to record the height, weight and head circumference information. Bring it back home with you and record it in Growing Tales. Reasons for Visit. Growing Tales pre-defines some Health Visit types for you. If you want to make the entries more specific, feel free to do so. Make sure you know what immunizations your child received on his/her health visit so you can record them in Growing Tales. Use Monitoring & Tracking to record any kind of information such as general health issues, issues for special needs children, or sleeping and eating habits. If your health provider asks you to track something for your child, Monitoring & Tracking is the place to do it. For example, you can use Monitoring & Tracking to monitor a fever and medication. Through Growing Tales "Print & Email" you can print the information you have tracked and take it to your pediatrician. Baby Teeth – don’t forget to track when your child’s teeth come in and when they come out. This will be printed in the "print & email" Baby Book included in Growing Tales. Health Milestones: Below are some suggestions for things to track in the Health Milestones area. First Eye Exam First Hearing Exam First Dental Exam Starting a child’s exercise program First time your child is given cereal First time your child is given solid food First time your child uses the potty Education: Scan in your child’s artwork and attach it in Education Photos or as a milestone. On the Education Page, don’t forget to take a photo of your child, your child’s teacher, a picture of the school or classroom and a picture of his/her classmates for the school year. Enter all of your child’s classmates with their address and home information. You can then create a Class Roster in Print & Email to email to the entire class. If your child is in daycare and they do "teacher evaluations" for your child, record the information in "report cards" and/or "tests". You don’t have to wait until your child is in grade school. Use Education Milestones to record information such as the first time your child counts to 10, shape recognition, or even sports events, such as the first time they hit a home run! You can record effective methods of discipline for your child at various stages in Education milestones. Video tape your child playing a sport, a musical instrument, or participating in a spelling bee and attach it to Sounds & Videos. You could also record your child singing the ABC song. Journals Write a letter to your baby from Mom and Dad. Print it through Growing Tales Print & Email and put it in your Growing Tales baby book. Create a daily journal while you are pregnant and record your experiences. Create a Nanny Journal or Daycare journal to record what happened during your child’s day. Create a journal entry for each of your child’s birthdays. It could be a letter to your child or about the birthday party. Calendar: Put reminders on the calendar for buying things for the nursery. If you want to have your nursery set up 1 month before your baby is due, get your buying schedule on your calendar! Turn Growing Tales reminders into real appointments by simply selecting the reminder and choosing "appointment". Record all of your child’s extra-curricular activities on the calendar.

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